Dirty Assets

by Rumer Raines

  I dry off my face and walk out of the bathroom. Thankfully, once I open the door Alexis isn’t waiting to pounce on me. I walk back to Frank’s office and they are both sitting at his desk. They hear me at the doorway and they look up at me, both with small smiles.

  “Are you ready to finish the paperwork, Adele?” Frank asks as he picks up the pen to hand it to me.

  “There is something I think I should tell you both before we go any further,” I say and I can hear the tremor and uncertainty in my own voice.

  Frank nods his head and looks at Alexis and then back to me.

  I sigh and close my eyes and tell them everything. When I finish telling my story, both Alexis and I are in tears. Frank has moved to my side of the desk and is sitting on top of it. When I have settled down and my final tears have fallen, he stands to walk back around to his chair. He pulls out a book and starts to write something. I look over at Alexis and she shakes her head.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” She asks as she wipes a tear away.

  “I didn’t want your pity, Alexis. I wanted you to like me for me. Not because you felt sorry for me.”

  “I could have helped you, Adele,” Alexis says softly and I believe that she would have tried to help.

  “You did help me,” I tell her as I reach over and grab her hand.

  Frank closes his book and both Alexis and I look over at him. He looks me in the eye as he slides something across his desk. I have a feeling I am being given a termination letter before I even start. I reach for whatever he slid to me and I notice it’s a check. I look back at Frank and he nods at it indicating I should take it.

  I lift the check and shake my head as I look at it. He wrote me a check for five thousand dollars. I shake my head and look back at him.

  “I don’t understand?” I tilt my head as I look at him and back at the check.

  “I want you to take this money and hopefully get your car fixed. It should also be enough for a hotel, clothes, and food,” he advises as he pulls the paperwork away from me and places it back in his desk.

  “I can’t take this,” I say quietly.

  “You will take it. I won’t let any of my employees sleep in their car. Especially when they are looking over their shoulder,” he says and leans back in his chair.

  “Frank, I really can’t take this.” I can’t believe I am protesting this. I need this and it’s being handed to me. I’m not sure that it will do me any good. Who is going to cash a five thousand dollar check for me? I don’t have a bank account and I can’t even open one without an address.

  “Adele,” Frank says my name in an authoritative tone. “You will take the damn check. I will arrange for someone to take you to a hotel after your shift. That person will pick you up tomorrow morning and take you to a bank that will open an account for you and deposit that money. Your address will be Deluca’s. Once your account is open, you will take him to your car and he will make sure it’s fixed so you can drive to whatever hotel you want to stay in.”

  I stare at Frank and look back at Alexis and feel tears as they start to fall.

  “What will I owe you?” I ask.

  “Not every man only takes, Adele. You are my sister's friend and that makes you a friend of mine. I can help you and I will.”

  I sit back in my chair and cry harder than I have in months. Alexis takes my hand and cries with me and Frank stands to leave the room.

  “Wait.” I grab his arm as he walks past me. He is headed downstairs and will probably announce to everyone that I am a charity case. I can’t work here if my new coworkers think that about me. I realize it may be true, but I want to be able to look these people in the eye.

  “Can this stay between the three of us? I don’t want anyone to look down on me or give me a hard time?” I ask as I wipe away a tear.

  “It will stay in this room and never be mentioned again, Adele.” He nods his head and leaves us alone in his office. Alexis grabs my hand giving it a squeeze and when I look in her eyes I notice that she isn’t giving me pity.

  Alex

  I am so mad there is probably smoke coming out of my ears. I have been staring at Frank’s office door for almost an hour. That is one full hour that my new employee has been up there sitting on her ass. The same ass that I want to throw her out on. She is most likely up there buttering him up and he’ll be all over me when I get rid of her. The worst part of it all is if Alexis wasn’t up there with them I would think he had her thrown across his desk and fucking her. It’s what I would do if I was in the office with her. I look up and notice Thomas by the door and he is glaring at the closed office door as well. I need to shake my thoughts off and come up with a strategy to get rid of her and fast. The bar is starting to get busy and I look over at my other staff working their asses off. I will need her trained and I have no idea who I will stick her with. Should I put her with my worst waitress who happens to be easy on the eyes? Or should I put her with my best one, who may train her too well and that will lead to problems when I get rid of her? She won’t need that much training since she will basically walk her ass around and take orders. The thing about Deluca’s is there is a restaurant situated in the bar. Our waitresses are expected to serve food and push the liquor. We don’t even serve anything except liquor. This isn’t the family restaurant that you bring your kids to. There are certain customers that our waitresses know not to bother. There are certain booths that they are taken to and left alone. They will give certain signals to the waitress let them know when they should approach the table. The new waitress will need to know this shit. She will find out when her training begins and whenever she brings her ass out of the office.

  “What the fuck do you think is going on up there?” Thomas practically grunts at me and I look away from the door to see him now standing in front of me.

  “Fuck if I know. I guess someone needs to be reminded that she is getting paid to work and not sit on her ass in the office.”

  “I don’t like this, Alex. I know I have told you this before so you don’t need the reminder, but I have a bad feeling about that girl,” Thomas mentions again like I need the fucking reminder.

  “I know you do. I don’t like it either. I will take care of it. I will make her ass feel so unwelcome that she will quit. As a matter of fact, we both need to,” I tell him as we both look back towards the office door opening and Frank waltzes out.

  The first thing I notice is he comes out alone and not with Adele. I shake my head and look over to Thomas who obviously notices the same thing because I catch him rolling his eyes. We watch as Frank walks down the stairs and weaves himself through the crowd that is starting to gather. He makes it to the bar and we both look at him wondering what the hell is going on here. Frank motions for the bartender to bring him his usual drink and I notice it’s brought right over to him. One of the perks of being one of the owners is we don’t have to wait for our drinks. Ours always come first and the clients and customers know and understand this.

  “Adele should be done shortly. She is having a rough night.” Frank says to me as he takes a swig of his beer.

  “She is having a rough night? Shouldn’t she start working before she starts complaining, Frankie?” I ask and I hear Thomas chuckle as he heads to the back door.

  Frank closes his eyes and drops his head. He lifts it and looks back at me. “Alex, please don’t cause trouble for this girl. She is a friend of Alexis and she has had bad luck in life.”

  “Haven’t we all had bad luck in life, Frankie? Hell, look at me. I used to run this place and now you get to tell me when I hire someone? I consider that bad luck.”

  Frank is about to respond when something catches his eye near the front door. I turn to find out what it is and it’s Hailey. She is barely dressed in a red tank top and the shortest jean skirt I have ever seen. She looks like a tramp, but I guess that is what I like in girls. Frank shakes his head and turns back towards me. “You need to get her out of here, Alex. We have a business to
run.” He finishes his drink and heads back to his office. He and Hailey practically bump into each other, but neither of them acknowledges the other. They don’t like each other and I can understand why. Frank is a former cop and he knows trouble when he sees it. He can practically smell dishonesty on a person. Hailey is as dishonest as they come. The only reason she hangs around me is that she is a cokehead and I have money. I should also mention that she enjoys my dick, but I think she prefers the coke. I know exactly what I am getting with her and it’s all I want right now. The last thing I need is some woman hanging around wanting commitment and trying to control everything I do. I have seen what Lola has done to Frank and I am not interested. She dangles the cookie and he will dance for her like a fucking sock puppet. Hell, that was before they even had those kids.

  I must admit I do sometimes feel a little jealous of Frank when it comes to those twins. One boy and one little girl that can wrap anyone around their finger with ease. The odd thing is, the little boy looks like me and sometimes he even acts like me. It’s funny because those are the times when Lola is the most frustrated with him. The little girl looks like Alexis and like Alexis, she wraps me around her finger and can get anything she wants from me. I wonder If I’ll have kids one day, but it doesn’t need to be nine months from now. Maybe one day I will find the perfect girl to knock up. I will have conditions though, I will not be controlled. I don’t know about this being faithful and being with one-woman thing either. Who wants to eat the same meal three times a day for the rest of your life? I think I’d rather be shot than have the same woman and only that woman? I have a short temper and shorter attention span especially when I am bored.

  “Hey, baby,” Hailey says as she approaches me and wraps her arms around my neck giving me a kiss.

  I pull away from her and remove her arms. “What are you doing here, Hailey? You know this is where I work and I don’t have time to play games with you.” I know this sounds harsh, but she knows this. Hell, she used to work here so why she’d come here is beyond me.

  “I wanted to see you. I missed you,” she says and I notice that she keeps wiping her nose and seems a little unbalanced.

  I pull her close to me and she gasps. “Are you fucking high right now?” I can’t believe she would come here in this condition.

  I realize I am being a hypocrite since she gets high with me all the time, but for some reason her getting high by herself is just unacceptable. I don’t know how much she has been given and what was in whatever they gave her.

  Hailey pulls away from me and starts looking around. “Really? You have no problem getting me high, but I broke the rule of doing it with someone else?” She spits as she wipes her nose.

  I close my eyes and rub my temples as the noise starts to smother me. The crowd seems to have gotten louder and people are moving on both sides of me. I can feel myself about to lose it with Hailey and I should get her out of here. I want to hurt her, but there are too many witnesses. I grab her arm and she gasps because I have a tight grip on her. I pull her towards the front door and shove her towards the bouncer at the front door.

  “Keep this high bitch out of here.”

  Hailey’s eyes get wide and I can hear her yelling at me calling me every kind of bastard there could possibly be. I keep walking and stop when I notice Adele walking down the stairs.

  Our eyes meet and I feel paralyzed in the very spot that I stand. I don’t know what this feeling is, but my heart starts racing. Is this the disgust that I have for her? I know she hasn’t done anything. At least, not yet. I only know the feeling in my gut screams that she needs to go. She continues down the stairs and weaves between customers as she makes her way over to me. Her eyes are still on me and my heart feels like it’s about to explode. It must be because of Hailey, but I just don’t ever think she brought this feeling to me. Of course, she never showed up uninvited at Deluca’s either. I close my eyes trying to calm myself down and when I open them she is standing inches away from me.

  “I am ready for you,” she practically purrs.

  “Excuse me?” I ask and my heart once again starts to race.

  “I am ready to get to work. Are you going to show me the ropes?”

  I close my eyes and shake off this odd feeling in my gut and walk her behind the bar. I can feel the other waitresses watch as I give Adele a few simple instructions. I tell her which booths are always left empty except for our special clientele. She is never to approach those clients. I normally assign whoever works the sections anyway, so I’ll make sure to assign her to tables and make sure our most difficult customers are seated there. I am almost tempted to make sure their orders are always screwed up too. I’ll have to think that one over since I want to make sure It falls back on her and not Deluca’s. I snap out of the thought when one of the bartender’s bump into her and she bumps into me. I can’t help but notice how good she smells. It’s a very faint vanilla but not overbearing in that way that I hate. She gasps and moves back quickly, almost like touching me burned her.

  I decide to stick Adele with one of my worst waitresses for training. I almost feel guilty when everyone working the bar start to give me questionable glances. They know she is awful and she is the one that always has the worst complaints. Customers and other employees seem to hate this girl and I can understand why. If I have my way, I’ll be able to get rid of both in a few weeks. I watch as they head to their first table and I have this odd feeling in the pit of my stomach. I am not sure what the hell it is. It can’t be guilt, I never feel that shit. I shake it off and get back to work.

  Adele

  When I am finally done crying, Alexis releases my hand and I put the check into my backpack. She tells me that I can leave my things in Frank’s office until I am assigned a locker. I decide that it’s best to wait until I start working before I ask for one. I can’t believe any of this is happening. I can’t believe I have a job and I really can’t believe that Frank just handed me five thousand dollars. It may not be a million dollars, but when you have nothing, it’s a lot of money. He just gave it to me and I didn’t have to do anything for it. At least I haven’t had to do anything for it yet. I have a feeling Frank is a good guy and won’t make me regret taking it, so hopefully, my gut feeling is correct. I stand up deciding it’s time to face the music and head downstairs. I know that when I get down there I will face an angry Alex. He already doesn’t like me, so I know me being in the office this long didn’t score any points with him. As I head down, my eyes meet his and I am suddenly stopped in my tracks. I don’t know why he is looking at me like that, but at the same time, I don’t know why I suddenly have this fluttering feeling in my stomach.

  I walk down and finally reach him as he continues to stare at me.

  “I am ready for you,” I say and notice that he goes stiff.

  “Excuse me?” he asks and now my face heats up as I realize how I sounded.

  “I am ready to get to work. Are you going to show me the ropes?” I ask trying to clarify what I just offered.

  Alex gives me the highlights of the club, advising which booths I should never approach. I feel uncomfortable being around him and I don’t quite understand why. He is very attractive, but this guy is one of the biggest assholes I have met in a long time. Garth may have been my worst nightmare, but at least he hid it and faked the charm. Alex just doesn’t care if he has asshole written across his forehead in neon colors. When one of the bartenders accidentally bumped into me causing me to bump into Alex, I could have fainted. He felt like a wall, but a comfortable wall. He felt and smelled so good. I caught myself taking a deep breath of his wonderful scent. I pulled away suddenly because I realized how stupid I was for doing so. I already have one bad apple that I am trying to escape, I don’t need to take a bite of another one. I looked away hoping that Alex didn’t notice how suddenly I pulled away from him. It was an innocent bump, but something about touching him didn’t feel innocent.

  Alex has me shadowing a waitress that I have a bad
feeling about. She is rude to customers and messes up a lot of orders. She is annoying me and I can tell she is annoying the customers as well. She is so slow picking up orders that I start to worry that the food will be cold before we deliver them. She seems to be more interested in socializing than working and I don’t understand how she’s never been fired. The sad part is she even has the nerve to complain when no one leaves her a tip. I honestly don’t blame anyone for not leaving her one. A tip is for good service and there were times I mouthed an apology before leaving several of the tables. When she takes a tenth bathroom break during two hours, I wait for her behind the bar and chat with another waitress. She is stunned that Alex would have me shadow the worst waitress at Deluca’s. She mentions that none of the other staff likes her and every customer she waits on, complains about her. She comments that it’s almost like Alex is setting me up to fail. That’s when it occurs to me that is exactly what that bastard is doing. He doesn’t want me here and he is making sure that I don’t last long. I close my eyes, fighting to keep my tears in.

  For the rest of the night, I decide to not let Alex win. I note every customer’s order and correct them when they are misread to the bartender. I make sure that every customer gets the correct order. When the order is ready, instead of waiting, I rush up to the bar and pick it up to deliver it to the customer. I can tell I am annoying the hell out of this loser who is supposed to be training me, but I don’t give a rat’s ass. I need this job. Within a few hours, the customers are catching on very quickly and they start giving me their orders. They become very generous when handing me the tip and I can feel angry eyes on the back of my head as she marches back to the bar behind me. When I stop to empty the leftovers from the plates she keeps walking. I look up when I see she is angrily talking to Alex. They both look over to me and she points her finger towards me as she shakes her head and become quite animated when talking to him. I notice he closes his eyes and leans his head back and when he lifts it back up he turns to look back over at me. He takes his hand and starts to rub his forehead and I easily notice that he is quite agitated and if I should guess I can assume that I am the reason.